Data may be stored within a computer system using many different techniques. Should an individual computer system such as a desktop or laptop computer be stolen or lost the data stored on it may also be lost with disastrous effects. Backing up the data on a separate drive may maintain the data but sensitive information may still be lost and made available to third parties. Even where the entire system is not lost or stolen, individual disk drives or other storage devices may fail leading to a loss of data with similar catastrophic effects.
A RAID (redundant array of inexpensive drives) array may be configured to store data under various conditions. RAID arrays use disk mirroring and additional optional parity disks to protect against individual disk failures. However, a RAID array must be configured in advance with a fixed number of disks each having a predetermined capacity. The configuration of RAID arrays cannot be changed dynamically without rebuilding the array and this may result in significant system downtime. For instance, should a RAID array run out of space then additional disks may not be added easily to increase the overall capacity of the array without further downtime. RAID arrays also cannot easily deal with more than two disk failures and separate RAID arrays cannot be combined easily.
Although the disks that make up a RAID array may be located at different parts of a network, configuring multiple disks in this way is difficult and it is not convenient to place the disks at separate locations. Therefore, even though RAID arrays may be resilient to one or two disk failures a catastrophic event such as a fire or flood may result in the destruction of all of the data in a RAID array as disks are usually located near to each other.
Nested level RAID arrays may improve resilience to further failed disks but these systems are complicated, expensive and cannot be expanded without rebuilding the array.
Similarly, portions of transmitted data may also be lost, corrupted or intercepted, especially over noisy or insecure channels.
Furthermore, current data storage and/or transmission methods and devices are prone to corruption and data loss. Even small levels of corruption may affect data quality. This is especially so where the data is used to record high quality audio or visual material as corruption can lead to distortion and loss of quality during playback or from received media.
Therefore, there is required a storage method and system for data that overcomes these problems.